I really like this article. You do a nice job of explaining things clearly and I really like where you take it. Blaming this on AI is definitely scape-goatism:

the reality is almost too mundane to believe.

Pointing the finger at “a complex and subtle series of bugs” (to quote their postmortem), or at AI (for assisting in discovery of the issue) is an abdication of responsibility.

This was a build flag that didn’t do what its author thought it did. Human error, hiding in plain sight.

And I especially appreciated the latter half of your article. I agree with this:

More people should’ve verified Coldcard’s code for themselves, absolutely. But have you studied the Bitcoin source code line by line? No? Then you’re trusting it, not verifying it for yourself. And that’s fine - for 99% of people, some degree of trust is unavoidable.

I wonder though if it wouldn't be better for Bitcoin if the expectation was that influencers who accept sponsorship money retain a little more objectivity. I've never been sponsored to do anything, so I can't quite say how it feels, but I'm sure there is a lot of pressure to refrain from saying negative things about the sponsors products. Hopefully this incident is so bad that influencers are more willing to be critical.

I read this article when you first put it up and thought it was great. It's especially true that, once the fuckup was made, it was already over and disclosing it would've led to chaos.

The one thing I'll say is about the idea they did everything right, and it's more for future reference because we have to learn things from this.

Darthcoin has always said, "Be your own bank — Think like a bank." Which also means thinking like whoever's in charge of vault security, and also like the armed guard up front. Banks have layered security.

Now for instance:

• Having your entire stash in one single wallet?
• No passphrase? Or a weak passphrase?
• Having a very very very large stash, protected in this one little place?

Wouldn't we recognize these as mistakes, even if this had never happened? What if you get wrench attacked? What if your seed (in whatever stupid way you imagine) gets exposed? And it's well known (at least here on SN) that the hardware wallet itself can draw unwanted attention versus other, totally inconspicuous options like a normie laptop or USB setup.

This doesn't impact how we speak to newbs. A young guy can spend some time in lightning and Sparrow before moving to cold storage; it doesn't have to be overcomplicated and you can organically harden your security as you go.

I know who you are now. And I will come there and stab a knife in your eyeballs on live stream for the world to see. You will not just suffer for one minute. I will make you paraplegic and let you suffer for weeks and starve to death while we celebrate. You made this bed for yourself, A.

https://mempool.space/tx/3910552633d25e6c0360281c43651cd7ae3cc70257759db7a8c07bef6f2994d8?mode=details#:~:text=I%20know%20who%20you%20are%20now.%20And%20I%20will%20come%20there%20and%20stab%20a%20knife%20in%20your%20eyeballs%20on%20live%20stream%20for%20the%20world%20to%20see.%20You%20will%20not%20just%20suffer%20for%20one%20minute.%20I%20will%20make%20you%20paraplegic%20and%20let%20you%20suffer%20for%20weeks%20and%20starve%20to%20death%20while%20we%20celebrate.%20You%20made%20this%20bed%20for%20yourself%2C%20A.

This incident showed us that "don't trust, verify" also applies to the RNG.

you could sweep the funds yourself and return them minus a finders fee.

re "A seed generated on a flawed Coldcard is permanently weak, so responsible disclosure had nowhere to go."